NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, October 26, 2017

“If people just thought for a moment before dumping their rubbish then maybe they wouldn’t do it as it harms our environment.”

Zymal Umer, 10, sighs as she takes in the view of a makeshift rubbish dump on the outskirts of her hometown Sargodha in Punjab, Pakistan. But could the girl dubbed the country’s “youngest social entrepreneur” by many have a solution?

For now, there are colourful piles of plastic bags, metal and general waste as far as the eye can see.

Wafts of smoke fill the air with a putrid and toxic stench as much of the refuse is set on fire.

What’s in front of Zymal is just the tip of the iceberg that is Pakistan’s problem with waste.

According to the country’s environment protection department, 20m tonnes of solid waste is generated a year and the figure is growing by 2.4% annually.

Photo courtesy of Simone McCourtie.